Over half of Irish businesses have experienced fraud in the last year according to a survey published today.
The survey, undertaken by Ernst & Young, found that 65 per cent of respondents experienced what they classed as "significant fraud" in the last 12 months.
Of these, 57 per cent said that failed internal controls had led to the fraud incident taking place.
Most of the survey's respondents agreed that the largest risk facing them was from computer fraud, with 68 per cent saying it is a high or medium level risk to their organisation.
Payment fraud (58 per cent) was seen as the second largest risk followed by intellectual property fraud and false accounting (both 52 per cent).
The survey also found that only 32 per cent of respondents have a comprehensive fraud policy in place while only 45 per cent have undertaken a fraud risk assessment.
Nick Hodgson of Ernst & Young said that fraud is estimated to cost Ireland in the region of €900 million annually.
"It is therefore imperative that companies take action by introducing comprehensive fraud risk policies which permeate all areas of their business," he added.